Silent Messiah
by Crystal Dawn
Summary: Both Nagi and his compatriots in Schwarz want Tot with them... but for very different reasons. What are the other men's reasons, and what does it have to do with the strange changes coming over Tot?
1. Silent Messiah: First Chapter

**Disclaimer:** Whew, I'm on a roll over here! Been writing like a maniac lately! ^^ So, anyway, these characters don't belong to me. Do we really need to say that? Oh, well - the fic looks kinda bare without these things up top. The characters belong to Take-san. 'Nuff said.

Silent Messiah  
by Crystal Dawn Phoenix  
Chapter One

The sound of keystrokes almost echoed in the cold, empty room. The black walls flecked with stars seemed to travel on forever. Those stars, white and far away and small, seemed to wink at the room's sole occupant. Whether it was a wink of understanding, or a wink of malice, he was never quite sure. Every so often, one would fall from the firmament and travel limitlessly down beneath his feet. The room gave the impression that one was floating in space.

And he was sure it was meant to give that impression of vertigo. What was up and what was down when you were suspended in the night sky, anyway? At any rate, he strove to ignore it, concentrating instead on the less mind-warping task on his computer screen.

The track lighting that served to give boundary to the stars at least kept the room from being engulfed in almost total darkness. For that much he was thankful - he didn't like reading from the screen in the dark.

He clicked and drug his mouse a few more times in rapid succession. Several keystrokes were entered impatiently. A firewall broke. Then another. Passwords were meaningless in his master hands.

Finally, the machine began to load a jpg file to accompany the page it was loading. When the picture was finished loading, he sat silently, staring at it and balking inside.

Her hair was different. That was the first thing he noticed. It was no longer bright, cotton candy blue. Now it was whitish blonde, the obvious effects of bleach. Even though the color was different, it was still the same style, the same two rabbit ears and chin-length bangs framing her face.

The information on the page indicated that the middle-aged man and woman standing with her were her new foster family. They had taken her in after the incident that had taken her first, more suitable family away from her. The state had placed her there, according to the page. He generally assumed that they had forced her to change her hair color when they took her in, too.

Something about this made him quietly furious. He knew that she was still too young to live on her own, but the fact that they had changed her somehow irritated him. From the look on the girl's face, he could also tell that she wasn't happy either. Her lips were turned up in a half-hearted smile, but her eyes seemed sad.

He could understand that. He was sure his own eyes were sad as well.

He sat staring at the screen, a strange feeling quietly rising inside. It ached dully and burned a bit, and he wondered why he'd been so compelled to get this information in the first place. So engulfed with the picture was he, that he didn't notice the small change in air circulation around his small corner of the room.

_You want her back, don't you?_ a tinny voice spoke to him in the back of his mind. He didn't turn around or flinch. He knew who was there.

"What does it matter to you, Schuldich?" he asked coldly, closing the window on the computer.

The man standing behind him grinned an open-mouthed grin and folded his arms over his customary green jacket. His red sunglasses glinted from the top of his head in the dim light. His shaggy red hair stirred in the room's air conditioning. The look on his face spoke of self-satisfaction and cockiness.

"Now, is that any way to greet a friend?" Schuldich asked smoothly, "It was just a question. I was just curious to see what you were up to this late at night." The boy in question fidgeted with the display properties on his machine.

"I was bored," he replied simply. He hated having Schuldich nose around in his business. It always seemed as if he were mocking him. The worst part was the fact that there was nothing secret or sacred to the man. If he didn't tell him what he wanted to know, it was such a simple matter for him to pick his brain to find it. There were no locked doors to a telepath.

"Oh?" Schuldich replied, easing over beside the machine, "You've got school in the morning, you know. You've not even changed out of your uniform yet." He looked down. It was true; he hadn't changed out of his dark blue school uniform.

"If that's all you wanted to tell me, you can leave now," he replied evenly, wishing the other man would go away. Schuldich looked undeterred.

"I was just concerned about a young teammate, that's all," he replied, unfolding his arms and sliding one hand into his jacket pocket, "But the question still stands, Nagi. You want her back?" There was a condescending lilt to his voice as he said it. It was almost as if he were keeping the girl in the photo in a box in his closet and teasing Nagi with her. Inside, he stuffed his anger down. Outwardly, he sat still and calm. It was several minutes before he even thought about answering Schuldich.

"It doesn't matter," he said quietly, "She's gone now." He stated it matter-of-factly, but there was still a hint of sadness in his voice. He knew that Schuldich had picked up on it.

"But what if you could get her?" Schuldich asked, obviously a leading question, "Would you?" The smirk on his face belied the fact that he was definitely playing a game. Was he just trying to get him in trouble, or was there something else there?

"It doesn't matter, because I can't get to her," Nagi replied succinctly. He again wished that Schuldich would get tired or bored and move on.

"No, maybe not," Schuldich said slowly, giving Nagi a knowing smirk, "But I can." Nagi's heart almost stopped, but he didn't let it show; instead, he stared blankly ahead, analyzing what his teammate was saying.

"Why would you do something like that?" Nagi asked, directly to the point, "It's not like you care." Schuldich feigned hurt at this and covered his chest as if his heart had been wounded.

"I can't believe you would question my good intentions like that," Schuldich said sadly, "Besides, haven't you ever heard that you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth?" Obviously, he had his own reasons and didn't feel like sharing them.

"I don't trust you, and I don't believe you," Nagi said flatly, not even giving Schuldich the dignity of a sideways glance. Schuldich's cocky expression didn't leave him.

"I'll give you some time to think about it," he said, finally taking the hint that Nagi was tired of him, "You can tell me your answer when you're ready." It was obvious to Nagi that he'd already given him an answer. But he really couldn't have expected any other response from the man.

His footsteps sounded quietly against the floor as he left the room. Nagi looked over just to make sure he was gone, and then began shutting down the computer for the night.

'What is he playing at?' Nagi thought to himself, 'He wants something.' The computer bleeped once to signal that it was ready to be shut off, and Nagi pushed the power button that would silence it.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

The next morning was gray and overcast. Nagi sat in his seat in Math class, blankly staring out the window at the ground. He had picked a window seat because of its wonderful view, but today, it proved more distracting than just about anything. It occurred to him that if the teacher jumped up on his desk and began stripping, he probably wouldn't have noticed it. Which was probably a good thing, considering the teacher was a scrawny, balding, 50-some-odd year old man.

Pushing that thought out of his mind, he went back to concentrating on the problem at hand. Schuldich. Was he serious last night? What if he was? What would be the consequences? Nagi chewed his pencil's eraser in a nervous reaction as he looked out the window at the bleak morning. His dark brown bangs strayed into his eyes, desperately in need of a trim.

He brushed them away impatiently, blocking out the chatter of his classmates and the sound of his teacher. The chime sounded, signaling it was time for class to start. The den of his classmates settled out as they rose to greet their teacher. Nagi obliged mechanically, but without really paying much attention to what he was doing.

As soon as the class was seated, the teacher began to speak. Nagi blocked him out as well, instead concentrating on last night and trying to figure out exactly what was going on. He wished he had as good a head for strategy as Crawford - surely that would serve him here. He went right back to chewing the pencil, having become used to using it for a focus for his nervous energy.

Down on the ground, the steadily falling leaves captured his attention. The cool, damp wind had been blowing them loose for the past few days, but today it almost looked as if the leaves would create a storm of their own. The rain had not yet begun to fall, so they simply flew loose and airy and went wherever they pleased. From the window of the drab school building, they reminded Nagi of the sakura last spring, and how they had fallen like snow.

But the sakura had long since given way to simple green boughs, and now to dry, falling leaves. How long had it been? Four months? Six? And all he'd seen was a simple photo. His chest felt tight for a second.

Looking out at the brick wall that separated the school from the street, he thought he saw something for a second. It was yellow and satiny. He blinked in disbelief as the pale yellow dome bobbed up and down on the other side of the fence. He waited, holding his breath, for the bearer of the umbrella to reach the school's fence so he could get a better look at them. Was it...?

No, no such luck. It was simply a young, black haired woman and a small child, carrying a large yellow umbrella to keep the sprinkles away. Inside, Nagi admonished himself for getting his hopes up, but didn't take his eyes away from the window.

"Hey, wake up, fag," the boy sitting beside him said loudly enough to break Nagi's reverie, punching him on the arm as he did so, "Sensei's talking to you." It was Kawatani, a youth with military-cropped black hair and a reputation as a jock. Nagi recoiled from the strike and wished fervently that he could risk using his telekinesis in public. Instead, he made note that when Schwarz finally did attain their goals, Kawatani would be one of the first people to get it.  
Nagi looked up to see his Math teacher, Yamabayashi-sensei, looking at him expectantly. He cleared his throat and tried to retain his dignity.

"What was the question again, sensei?" he asked quietly.

"Give us the answer to the logarithm in question number four on last night's homework, Naoe," sensei replied, "And give us an explanation of how you got it."

Nagi stood, picking up the book and homework in front of him, and read mechanically from it. For once, he projected his voice across the room, but it was still only barely audible to those sitting furthest from him. He thought he heard one or two of the more popular girls in the room stifle giggles as he read, but he ignored them, instead opting to scratch their names down with Kawatani's in the back of his brain.

As soon as he finished, he once again took his seat, placing his book in front of him. The teacher nodded his approval as he scratched down Nagi's answer on the blackboard, pointing out some tough areas that he expected the other students to have problems with. Nagi sighed to himself, and went back to looking out the window. Soon the falling leaves would be replaced with snow. Would she forget him by then?

He chewed the pencil again, realizing that he really had no choice in the matter. It was obvious that Schuldich's mind was already set - it was only a matter of time. Besides, he reasoned, would it really be that bad? He did want to see her again. Being able to keep her would only make it better.

He put down the pencil, noting that it looked as if a rabid dog had mauled it. He really had been deep in thought about all this. Then he looked back out the window, noting that the rain had begun to come down. The leaves outside continued to fall, bearing silent witness as Nagi made his decision.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

That night was much like any other night.

The rain fell heavily outside, soaking the already damp autumn ground, but Nagi couldn't hear it. He was inside the starry room again, typing away on his computer. Small earphones were tucked into his ears, playing something soft and sad by Akino Arai. It felt appropriate.

The other three had disappeared hours ago, leaving him to his own devices, as they often did. Crawford had presumably gone to make some contact with the remaining Estet or had gone off to plot in quiet somewhere. Farfarello was probably out killing something. And Schuldich...

'Where is he, anyway?' Nagi thought to himself, continuing to type, killing time until the other man arrived. He fully expected him to appear out of nowhere, much like Mephistopheles did to Faust. 'That's probably a very fitting analogy,' he thought to himself, 'He likes to characterize himself as a devil, anyway.'

"I think it's very fitting, too," a voice said from behind him, "Devils are very charming, aren't they?" Nagi didn't turn around. Instead, he paused the cd in his computer and took the earbuds out of his ears.

"I was wondering when you'd show up," he said, showing no emotion in the tone of his voice. Instead, he clicked a link on the computer screen and brought up a different page.

"You make me sound so predictable!" Schuldich said, once again playing hurt, "But I see that you've an answer for my proposal?" The smirk again. Nagi hated that smirk, especially when it was directed at him.

"Name your price," Nagi said, his voice low and defeated. He fully expected Schuldich to ask something horrible of him.

"Why don't we just say that you owe me one?" Schuldich said, winking, "I don't want repayment now. I'll get it later." If Nagi was suspicious that something was up before, he was certain of it now. Since when did Schuldich not want a set payment for such a daunting task? Nagi clenched his teeth and screwed his eyes shut.

"What are you playing at, Schuldich?" Nagi asked, not really expecting an answer this time, either. Schuldich shrugged and turned to leave.

"Well, if you don't want what I'm offering you," he said, obviously baiting Nagi, "I'll just go away." Nagi was becoming so frustrated that he wanted to pull his hair. Instead, he restrained himself and called the other man back.

"I didn't say that," he said firmly, holding his breath and not wanting to have to speak again. He knew what the next words out of his mouth had to be. The pause seemed to drag on forever as Schuldich stood there, waiting patiently for what he wanted to hear.

"Do it," Nagi finally gave over, hanging his head in defeat, "Get her." Schuldich grinned triumphantly, perhaps even with a little touch of the sinister, as he turned to leave. Somewhere inside, Nagi half-expected Schuldich to disappear in a puff of fire and brimstone. Instead, he just walked out the door.

The door snapped shut, leaving Nagi to look at his computer screen. Soundlessly, he hung his head, directing his gaze downward onto the desk and at his hands. There was no way to tell exactly how Schuldich planned to extricate the girl from her new family, or how he intended to get her here. Worse, Nagi felt that the payment he wanted would be even more terrible than if he'd asked for it up front.

"What have I done?" he asked himself.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Another bleak, dreary, late fall day passed quietly. The rain didn't stop; instead, it drizzled all day, creating an invariably overcast, dim atmosphere. Nagi somehow appreciated this. It seemed to make the day go by faster.

The night was much like the one before, and the one before that. He sat alone, bleary eyed, at his computer, typing away. He tried to rationalize to himself exactly how he had allowed Schuldich to wrest his approval out of him. When he got right down to it, he could only think of it as kidnapping, though. What if she didn't want to come here? What if he'd been wrong when he'd seen the picture? What if she was actually happy with her new family? The endless what-if's and questions raced through his head, disallowing him rest or peace. In fact, they were starting to make him dizzy.

One after the other, the questions marched through his brain. He tried to find quiet in the computer screen, but it just wasn't there tonight. And in the back of his mind, the last question - how long would it be before she was here?

"Yo," the familiar voice called from the other side of the room. Nagi didn't turn around this time, either, but at least it stopped a few of the loudest questions in his mind.

"What do you want this time?" he asked coldly, wishing he could just get rid of Schuldich for once and for all. The red haired man stood in the doorway, leaning lazily on the frame. He once again gave Nagi that wolfish grin.

"I've got something I want you to see," he said slyly, "Come on." Nagi's heart felt as though it had frozen for a second as he rose to join Schuldich in the doorway. He gave the older man a cold look as they walked through the door together.

Once into the hallway, though, the vertigo of space left them. The floors and walls were no longer speckled with stars; instead, they were dull beige carpeted and faux wood grain paneled. In an odd contrast to the room they'd just left, the rest of the house seemed entirely normal. More than once, Nagi had been forced to wonder if the starry room really existed on this plane of reality at all, or if it was simply a dimension of its own.

Schuldich walked down the hallway, not turning to see that Nagi was following him. They moved three doors down and to the left from the door to the starry room, and then Schuldich stopped. It was Nagi's own room. Nagi gave him a suspicious look.

"Go in and look in your bed," Schuldich said, more of an order than a request. Nagi complied, but his look didn't falter. He turned the knob on the door, opening it slowly. The air in the room was stuffy from disuse. In truth, he only used his room to sleep, and even then he barely ever saw it. All it held was a chest of drawers with a small reading lamp on it, a table with a few books scattered across it, a gray sheeted bed, and a clothes hamper. The window was covered with a simple blind, drawn up so as not to let any light in or out.

The first thing he noticed was that the lamp on the dresser beside the bed had been turned on. Then his eyes followed the light, surveying what it rested against. There was someone laying in his bed.

Disbelief gripping him, he stepped forward to get a better look. A part of him even wanted to make sure he wasn't seeing things. No, there was definitely a girl laying in his bed.

"I took the liberty of having her hair turned blue again," Schuldich said, having sidled up behind him while he wasn't paying attention, "It was the most awful shade of blonde. Be glad you didn't have to see it in person." Nagi still couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Her foster parents?" he finally managed to choke out, "What about them?" Schuldich folded his arms and grinned again.

"What foster parents?" he asked slyly, "I'm sure they don't remember being her foster parents. But I'll leave deleting her social worker's files to you. You're good at that sort of thing." Nagi continued to stand over his bed, dumbfounded, watching the sleeping girl breathe heavily.

"Well, I'll leave the two of you alone," Schuldich said with a wink, "I'm sure you've got lots of catching up to do." He turned to go, but Nagi didn't reply. He was far too stunned to even think of a response. The door clicking behind him let him know that Schuldich was gone.

Slowly, afraid that if he moved too fast she would disappear, Nagi reached out to touch the girl in his bed. She was fast asleep, her chest moving deeply to each breath, her eyelashes resting against her cheeks. Not only had her hair been recolored, it had also been done up in her customary bunny ears as well. The covers were pulled up to her chin and she was on her back, an obvious sign that she hadn't merely fallen asleep - she had been rendered unconscious.

He stood over her, lightly touching her face, brushing his thumb over her cheek, then her lips. She sighed in her sleep, a good sign that she wasn't injured. Ever so slowly, he drew closer to her, her breath hitting his lips. It was warm and inviting and he hadn't felt it in so long. Closing his eyes, he kissed her softly, remembering how bittersweet it had been the last time they'd kissed.

Suddenly, he felt her moving, kissing him back. His eyes shot open as he pulled away, looking down at the blue haired girl in his bed. Her large, blue eyes were open now, and were regarding him with a look of wonder.

"Tot?" he asked softly, brushing some hair out of her face. She smiled brightly, a look of pure joy coloring her features.

"Nagi-kun!" she responded eagerly, sitting up with enough speed to make Nagi dizzy and throwing her arms around him. He noticed now that she was dressed in her favorite white blouse and pink skirt. Awkwardly, he wrapped his arms around her back, as well.

"I've missed you, Tot," he said softly, burying his face in her neck.


	2. Silent Messiah: Second Chapter

**Disclaimer:** Still with us? Goody! Same stuff as last time applies. ^^ These characters belong to Take-san and co. They could try suing me, but what would be the point? I mean... really.

Silent Messiah  
by Crystal Dawn  
Chapter Two

Nagi awoke the next morning with the strange feeling that something was drastically different.  
At first, he dismissed this unsettling feeling as the result of sleeping with his uniform on. That was always uncomfortable, and he hated to do it. Unfortunately, a lot of the time, he wound up exhausting himself late at night and doing it anyway. Last night was apparently no exception.

However, after a second, he realized that there was something else. The blankets beside him were moving as though someone beneath them were breathing. Slowly, groggily, he followed his arm across the blankets to notice that his hand was entwined with another, smaller, more delicate hand.

Slowly, and ever so gently, he squeezed the hand, bringing its owner back into consciousness. Before she opened her eyes, Tot yawned deeply. Then, her free hand went to her eyes, rubbing the sleep out of them. Nagi smiled, for once almost happy.

After a moment of watching Tot rustle around, though, another thought occurred to him. His smile vanished as he let go of her hand.

"I have to go, Tot," he said softly, "I've got school." Tot nestled down into her blankets, snuggling up against the pillow.

"It's Sunday, Nagi-kun," she said sleepily, "No school today." He opened his mouth to reply, but then realized she was right. Otherwise, his alarm clock would have woken him up. Right now it read 9:30. If it were a school day, he'd have been horribly late by now.

"Alright," he conceded, laying his head back down, "What do you want to do today?" Tot smiled brightly, if a little sleepily.

"I want to spend the day with you," she said, clutching something to her chest. He realized then that she had brought her stuffed bunny with her, as well.

"Yes, but what do you want to *do*?" he asked, trying to draw a suggestion out of her. What sorts of things did girls like to do, anyway? Nagi suspected they spent lots of time playing with their hair or something similar, but he wasn't sure about Tot.

"Ummmm," she said thoughtfully, "We could eat breakfast, couldn't we?" Nagi blinked. He couldn't remember the last time he'd actually had breakfast. And whenever he did eat breakfast, it was something quick and simple, like a rice roll or a piece of fruit. He had never really had a family to have breakfast with, either, so it wasn't a concept that he was totally familiar with. But at the same time, it sounded like something enjoyable.

Nagi smiled awkwardly. "I think we could have breakfast," he said quietly. Tot squealed with delight.

"Yay!" she chimed enthusiastically, "I missed having breakfast!" Nagi looked at her for a moment, confused.

"You mean you never had breakfast with your foster family?" he asked, just a little curious about them. Tot's delighted look faded to one of vague sadness.

"No," she said quietly, "They didn't eat together a whole lot." Nagi wondered what had made her so sad suddenly.

"Do you miss them?" he asked, wondering if that was it. Tot shook her head.

"Not really," she replied, "Step-Mama and Step-Papa weren't all that great. But now I've got Nagi-kun instead, so it's all okay!" She smiled broadly again, clutching her bunny close to her chest. Nagi smiled in response.

"Breakfast?" he asked, watching Tot nod at him.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Nagi slowly opened the kitchen door, looking behind him to make sure that Tot was still following him. Sure enough, she was still standing there, looking past him expectantly. Her skirt and blouse were rumpled from sleep, just as her hair was. Of course, Nagi himself didn't look much better. His uniform was also wrinkled and his hair was sticking to his head in odd places. He wasn't really that concerned, though. This was only breakfast, not a fashion show.

As he looked through the kitchen door, however, Nagi received an unpleasant surprise. Instead of being empty, as it usually was, the kitchen was currently occupied. One of the occupants, a twenty-something year old man with black hair and glasses, was seated at the table. There was a nearly untouched plate of eggs and a cup of black coffee in front of him and the business section of the local paper in his hands. Even though it was Sunday, he was wearing an immaculately starched, light blue button-up shirt and khakis. Nagi supposed that was his idea of 'casual wear'.

Crawford.

To make matters worse, Schuldich was standing over the stove, cooking something. He bustled about, piece of toast in mouth, humming something that sounded distinctly like German death metal. As opposed to Crawford, however, he was unkempt and uncombed, wearing a sloppily unbuttoned and untucked green shirt and jeans. And pink bunny slippers. Nagi wasn't about to ask about those.

He almost stepped back to shut the door before Crawford looked up to notice him. Crawford's face was even as he looked over the rumpled teenager. Nagi hoped like Hell that he couldn't see the girl standing behind him as well.

"Good morning, Nagi," he finally said, before tilting his head a little as though he would look behind Nagi, "Good morning, Tot." Nagi caught his breath and almost choked on it. Crawford already knew? Nagi was sure he'd kill them both - possibly literally. He had been quite opposed to Nagi's relationship with Tot before, anyway - if he wished, he could send her away now, as well. As such, he tried his best to hide Tot with his body, but she stuck her head over his shoulder to respond anyway.

"Morning!" she said happily, eliciting something that looked almost like a small smile from Crawford. Nagi simply stood there dumbfounded as she walked around him and went over to see what Schuldich was cooking.

"Aren't you going to have a seat?" Crawford asked after Nagi had stood there for a minute or two, too petrified to move. From the tone of the other man's voice, Nagi thought he might as well have said 'Sit down, *now*.' He walked mechanically over to the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down woodenly. Silently, he waited for what he was sure was going to be a harsh reprimand.

"I see you've had quite a night," Crawford said, his voice suggesting not only a flat observation, but perhaps a hint of mischief as well. Nagi blinked, believing he was quite possibly hearing things. Meanwhile, over at the stove, Schuldich looked up from showing Tot how the toaster worked. He took his piece of toast out of his mouth and threw a wicked grin over his shoulder.

"Oh, come on, Crawford," he said, holding back a laugh, "This is Nagi we're talking about here." Schuldich snickered, biting back down on his toast and turning back to Tot, who had already loaded the toaster. If the entire situation were not so surreal, Nagi might have almost been tempted to be offended. As it was, however, he felt like he'd stepped into that old American show that sometimes came on the telly - "The Twilight Zone".

"Anyway," Crawford continued, adjusting his glasses and bringing the tone of the kitchen quickly back to flat, normal reality, "You know I'm not fond of... outsiders, Nagi." Nagi nodded once, his eyes cast down at the table. He should have known Schuldich was only trying to get him in trouble to begin with.

"If we're going to make an exception for this girl," Crawford said, his business-like manner penetrating the very air around the table like a sharp knife, "You are going to be the one to take full responsibility for her." Nagi looked up from underneath his bangs. Did Crawford just say he could keep her? Maybe he'd heard him wrong?

"But," he said, not quite sure how to put the words in the right places, "Didn't you tell me before that I couldn't think about her until after our plans have succeeded?" A part of him instinctively knew that it was stupid to try and argue himself out of a sweet deal. However, the vast majority of Nagi's brain knew that something strange was going on.

"I did say that," Crawford admitted flawlessly, "But at this point, we're still in the recovery and planning stages from our last exploit. As long as you're available when we need you, there should be no conflict. I trust you to make sure there are no conflicts." He gave Nagi a stern look, but the teenager didn't really notice it. He was far too stunned by what he was hearing. Nagi gave a blank nod in response, letting what Crawford was telling him sink in.

"Also, it's your responsibility to keep her from causing trouble," Crawford went on coldly, taking a small sip of his coffee and looking at his paper, "Making sure her needs are met is also your responsibility. Make sure her social worker's files are erased, and have her enrolled in school. I won't have her here unsupervised." Nagi nodded numbly once again. As he thought about it, having her in school was probably the best thing for her. Not that it really mattered toward her education; he highly doubted that she'd ever have any sort of career, anyway. It was more to the point that no one would need to watch her while he was gone. Crawford would chafe at the idea, Farfarello would have her out killing things with him, and Schuldich... Yes, school was definitely the best place for her.

Nagi's reverie was broken as a plate full of slightly scorched toast and undercooked scrambled eggs landed on the table in front of him. He looked up to see Tot smiling sheepishly at him.

"I think I burnt the toast a little," she said shyly, "Schuldich-san showed me how to cook eggs, though!" Nagi gave her a weak smile in return and silently prayed that he didn't get salmonella poisoning from the eggs.

"That's okay," he replied finally, "I can scrape the burnt parts off with a knife." He looked over to Crawford once more. The older man was giving him a flat look.

"As long as we understand each other," Crawford said, once again immersing himself in his newspaper.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Later that night, Nagi was once again seated in front of his computer in the starry room. He had sent Tot into the den to watch the telly while he worked on getting into her case files and creating a believable set of school transcripts for her.

They'd already had quite a long day, staying out until past eight. They'd had to go shopping to get her a few pairs of clothes and shoes and a school uniform. Nagi had been glad that he'd saved most of his meager pay; girls' clothes weren't cheap. As soon as they'd gotten home, though, he had immediately begun this chore.

He had already found her last school's records; not surprisingly, she was a less-than-stellar student. Apparently, before then, she hadn't been to school for several years. He assumed that the Takatori family had been home schooling her.

This really didn't present him many problems. The truth was, grades were painfully easy to change; most schools didn't have any real protection from hackers, anyway. And if they did, there were definitely none of the caliber needed to get rid of him.

A few more keystrokes, and Tot was a gifted student who had been enrolled in her school's most difficult classes. Nagi smirked to himself as he then proceeded to break into his own school's servers. If the students at his school had any idea he was able to do this, he was sure they would treat him with much more respect; however, considering the fact that he wasn't really all that fond of them, he wasn't likely to spread the news around.

Once inside the school's system, Nagi poked around, enrolling Tot in the same classes as him. This served a dual purpose. First of all, he'd be able to watch her and make sure no one gave her any trouble during the day. Second of all, he liked having her around. If she were with him, school would be much less painful.

As soon as that was cemented, he shut the window and began working on deleting her case files from the social worker's office. Since he'd already been in once, he suspected it wouldn't be too hard to get in again. His fingers flew across the keys, rapidly disintegrating any security features the database might have had. He could almost hear the firewalls falling across the modem.

At last, he reached the correct folder and the correct files. He made sure to cross-reference before he touched anything; calendars, appointment schedules, financial records. He would have to erase any references to her across the database to make sure no questions were raised. First he deleted the main file. Then, he went back and scratched out the other little references to her - not erasing any whole files, but just deleting a sentence or two or an appointment that would pertain to her. No one would be any the wiser.

As he erased the last cross-reference, he heard the door behind him open. He didn't look back, expecting it to be Schuldich once again. As the door clicked shut, however, he heard a small gasp. That wasn't Schuldich. He turned around in his chair to see Tot standing right in front of the door, a dazed and slightly nauseous look on her face. She was wearing the pair of his old, light blue pajamas he'd given her and holding her stuffed rabbit.

"What's the matter?" he asked, standing. It looked as if she might tip over at any moment. She was obviously very dizzy.

"This room!" she said, focusing her eyes on him, "There's no floor!" That was it: vertigo. He'd had a similar reaction the first time he'd seen it. He walked across the small room and took her by the shoulders to steady her.

"Don't worry about it," he said calmly, "You're not going to fall." Her eyes were confused and wet as she looked at him. "What are you doing in here?", he asked, watching as she brought one of the too-long sleeves on her nightshirt to her mouth and began chewing on it.

"Am I in trouble for being here?" she asked shyly. Nagi shook his head at her slowly.

"No, no," he said quietly, "But why did you stop watching the telly?" Tot stopped chewing on the sleeve, having produced a small wet spot on the cuff.

"It got too late and nothing good was on," she said, "So I wanted to tell you that it was bedtime. You'll be tired at school tomorrow if you don't go to sleep." Nagi suddenly realized that it was approaching midnight. He smiled softly and gave her a small kiss on the forehead. Since she was only wearing houseshoes, she was almost exactly his height. Something about that was comforting.

"Thank you, Tot," he said, leading her toward the door and opening it for her, "You go ahead and go to sleep. I'll be there in a few minutes." Tot smiled at him as he led her outside the doorway.

"Goodnight, Nagi-kun," she said, obviously sleepy.

"Goodnight," he replied, shutting the door and turning back toward his desk. There wasn't really anything left to do on the computer, anyway. Tot would start school with him tomorrow. Otherwise, it was almost as if she had never existed anywhere but her last school. He walked back to the desk to shut down the computer and smiled to himself at a job well done.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

In function, the next morning was just the same as any other. Nagi rose early, dressed, and got on the train to school. In reality, however, there was a different air to the morning entirely. Tot's presence made it seem as if a window had been opened on his whole world, letting fresh air and sunlight creep into an otherwise musty and dim existence. It was almost enough to make his head spin.

At the moment, Tot was seated next to Nagi on the train, humming happily to herself. Her outfit was prim and neat, the little pleated plaid skirt folded tidily over her thighs. He had taken a little extra time to help her get dressed this morning, just to make certain that she looked perfect for her first day. As a result, however, they were running just a few minutes late.

This hadn't seemed to deter Tot any, though; she was just as bright and cheerful as ever. She had even decided to bring her stuffed bunny along with the briefcase and school supplies that Nagi had bought her the night before. Nagi had tried to talk her out of it, but found that he couldn't argue with her when she pouted. He also found that he couldn't stay too angry at himself for it - not on a day like today.

The train bustled and jostled around the two of them, but for Nagi, time seemed to stand still. It was surreal in its own way; the businessmen and students and early morning travelers all swirled around them in a haze of blues and greys and blacks, but nothing could touch them. Even the bright, rising sun outside seemed distant and unreal. For the first time, Nagi almost felt as if everything might well turn out alright after all.

There was a small jerk as the train came to a slow stop, bringing Nagi back to reality as well. Tot was looking expectantly at him as the businessmen and students who had been seated rose and began to file toward the still-shut doors. For a moment, he wondered if Tot had ever taken the train before; that thought, however, was replaced with the nagging dread that had been haunting him since she had come to stay with him. Would she fit in at school? Or, more likely, would his classmates ridicule her just as much as they did him? He took her hand and rose, feeling as though he'd left his stomach in the seat beneath him.

"Come on," he said softly, almost drowned out by the noise and bustle around him, "This way."  
Tot looked around, aware of and interested in everything that surrounded her. Nagi noticed the broad grin on her face as she continued to look around, and it made him feel a little better as well. They left the train, stepping onto the platform into the crisp, early morning air. He led Tot off the platform and out into the station, having to drag her just slightly as she wanted to stop and look at everything. At this rate, he thought, they would never get to school.

Eventually, thankfully, they made their way out of the station and into the street. Once again, Tot was fascinated by everything they saw. Occasionally, she would ask Nagi a question or two, which he would field good-naturedly.

"Nagi-kun," Tot began, causing him to wonder just how many questions one girl could come up with in ten minutes, "How far away is your school?" Nagi didn't slow down any; he wanted to get to school and get Tot to the guidance office as quickly as possible. He hated to be late.

"It's only another block or so in this direction," he reassured her quickly. Tot grinned at him, causing him to have to suppress the familiar fluttering feeling in his stomach.

"Is it a nice school?" she asked, almost dancing as she walked beside him.

"I suppose," he replied, "It's only attended by the most gifted students. Most of them are the sons and daughters of wealthy people." He said it without a hint of boastfulness; in all actuality, it sounded more as though he reviled his classmates for that very same fact. He had always been looked down upon by those very same sons and daughters of wealthy folk; why shouldn't he revile them?

If Tot picked up on this, she didn't let on; on the contrary, she seemed just as happy as ever. Nagi surmised that she was excited to start at a new school with him. It would have excited him as well, if he didn't despise his classmates so.

"Are all the students as nice as Nagi-kun?" Tot asked him, still giving him that cute grin that made him weak in the knees. If he had been of a less serious disposition, he would have laughed at her question. As it was, however, he found that the foreboding feeling he'd been having got worse.

"No," he said quietly, looking away, "There are very few of them that are nice. I don't want to frighten you, Tot, but please don't talk to too many of them. They can be cruel." The grin on Tot's face faded to a more serious expression. She drew closer to Nagi, causing him to slow down a bit.

"Are they mean to you, too, Nagi-kun?" she asked sadly. There was a look in her eyes that told Nagi that she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Yes," he said softly, "Did you have students at your last school who were mean to you, too?" Tot looked as if she might cry for a moment before she bit her lip and nodded.

"I don't like mean people like that," Tot replied, "Papa used to tell me to ignore them, because they're ignorant." From the sad look on her face, Nagi surmised that she was all too familiar with their peers' cruelty. He wanted to hug her or comfort her in some way, but as it was, they were nearing the school's gates. He couldn't risk being seen at school showing her much more affection than just dragging her along by the hand.

"Your papa was right," Nagi said, "Ignore them. Besides, we at least have each other here." Tot's face brightened at this reminder. She hugged her bunny close to her chest and smiled sunnily again.

"That's right!" she chimed, "I can do anything, as long as I have Nagi-kun with me!" Nagi allowed himself a small smile as they walked through the gates and onto the school grounds.

Whatever pleasant feelings he'd been having beforehand, though, were sucked right out of Nagi as he entered the grounds. As usual, there were several students milling about the schoolyard before the bell rang. Some were on their way to classes; some were just gossiping or flirting.  
The faces of the students they passed turned to watch them beadily, almost mechanically. A few whispers sprang up from the crowd, but Nagi couldn't place who they were coming from. Not that he had any desire to, anyway; the staring eyes and gaping jaws were making him nervous. He didn't like all this attention being focused on him. He would have much rather preferred to blend into the scenery and make no one notice him. As it was, he had immediately become the new center of attention on the school grounds.

Or rather, the girl with him had. Tot, unlike Nagi, was thoroughly enjoying all the attention being directed at her. She waved cheerily at the gaping onlookers, even saying 'Hi' to a few of them. The ones who met her eyes immediately looked away and began talking to whomever was closest to them. After a few of these, Tot stopped waving and talking, instead opting to look confused and vaguely dejected. It was then that Nagi realized his mistake.

He stifled a full-fledged groan as he pushed open the front entrance of the school. It's not that he had much choice in the matter, but looking at it now, it seemed like an incredibly stupid idea to bring Tot to school with him. For one thing, how many of his classmates ran around sporting hair like hers? Sure, a few girls with mousy brown hair wore their hair up in buns, but there was no one on the entire campus with hair as shockingly electric blue as Tot's. Worse, how many had he ever seen carrying a stuffed bunny? At least, he thought, she hadn't had any choice in how she was dressed.

Nagi pulled Tot down the halls of the school building, toward the guidance councilor's office, by her wrist. He gave her wrist an encouraging squeeze, but it didn't seem to help her any; Tot's expression had faded from confident cheer to shocked and hurt. Now more than ever, Nagi thought she looked like a small, scared child.

"Nagi-kun," she asked uncertainly, "Are we going to class now?" He finally found the door he was looking for and came to a stop in front of it. He knew that there would be lots of paperwork for her to complete, so he didn't expect that she'd be in class anytime in the first hour.

"No," he replied, "You're going to go to see the Guidance Councilor. He'll give you several papers to sign and tell you all about the school." Tot's face cleared as she listened to his instructions. "I won't be able to come with you," he explained, trying to make this quick enough to make it to class on time, "So, please... don't say anything that will make him wonder about us." Tot blinked in mild confusion.

"Make him wonder?" she asked. Nagi, however, didn't have the time to explain it to her.

"And one more thing," he continued, "I've registered you under the name Toudou Sumire. Just introduce yourself as Sumire-chan, okay? I'll see you as soon as you're done with it all." Tot nodded to him confidently and turned to go into the office.

"I'll do my best, Nagi-kun!" she called out over her shoulder as she disappeared into the office. For some reason, Nagi couldn't help but worry.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Two hours. It had already been two hours, and Nagi had begun worrying at least an hour and a half ago. It wasn't that he was worried that Tot would slip up and give away his forgeries - okay, yes, he *was* worried she would say something unintentionally. He knew she'd never try to get either of them in trouble on purpose, but there was no telling what she'd decide to talk about while in the guidance office. What if she even told them about Schwarz?

Nagi was half-way through his math class before he found that his fears were fairly unfounded. His attention was torn from the utterly engrossing pencil that he'd taken to chewing again when the classroom's door cracked open. A familiar blue-haired head popped in and looked around.

Upon spotting Nagi, Tot's face broke into its usual broad grin. She stepped through the door and let it swing shut behind her with a loud 'bang'. The noise from the door got everyone's attention, particularly Yamabayashi-sensei's, who had been at the blackboard, copying down some problems from last night's homework. He looked up and blinked in recognition.

"Oh, we've been expecting you," Sensei said, looking at the teenaged girl, "Toudou-san, was it? You're our new transfer student?" Tot blinked at him and smiled.

"That's me!" Tot replied. Yamabayashi-sensei turned to face the class as Tot walked over to stand beside him.

Nagi could feel the whispers racing around the edges of the room. They were still hushed and quiet, but it felt like they might erupt into full-fledged chaos at any moment. He heard one or two of the girls behind him stifle giggles and a couple of the boys make remarks about how cute she was. There were even a few of them who were making snide remarks about her bunny; Nagi had fully expected that.

"Class," Yamabayashi-sensei addressed them, "I'd like you to meet your new classmate, Toudou Sumire." Tot gave a small bow and a wide, bright smile.

"Good morning!" she said sunnily, "I'm Sumire-chan!" Nagi heard one of the girls in the back muffle a condescending laugh. He felt his face burn and knew that it was an angry red color. He couldn't bear the look that came over Tot's face: a disappointed, frightened look.

Suddenly, Nagi felt a blow to his right arm and winced. "Aww, look at that," Kawatani remarked, smirking, "The fag is blushing! Maybe he's discovered girls?" Nagi closed his eyes and didn't even bother turning in their direction. Kawatani and his friends snickered viciously as Yamabayashi-sensei directed Tot to pick a seat. Nagi listened to the boys around him quietly make raunchy comments about Tot's legs, breasts, and short skirt. Fortunately, living with Schwarz had given Nagi an incredibly long fuse; if it hadn't, he believed that he would already have used his telekinesis in public to break those boys' necks.

Amid his reverie, Nagi saw Tot's sadly smiling face pop up before him. He blinked once and realized that she was, as a matter of fact, sitting right in front of him now, turned backwards in her seat to face him. The boys beside him chattered on quietly in a mixture of what seemed like disappointment that she'd chosen to sit in front of Nagi and irritation that she'd ignored all of them.

"I did everything you told me to, Nagi-kun," Tot said in a conspiratorial whisper, causing the other boys to look at the two of them in shock, "I did good, right?" Nagi allowed the corner of his mouth to pull up into a small smile as he looked at her. She was looking for some reassurance in a completely foreign environment. He could relate.

"Yes," he said, his whisper almost inaudible, "Turn around and listen to Sensei. We'll talk about it later." Tot nodded with a bold determination as she swiveled around in her seat.

"Quieten down, class," Sensei said blandly, his voice beginning to drone again in that same, narcolepsy-inducing tone as always, "Toudou-san, please take out some paper and copy down these problems. They'll give you some idea of where the class is." Nagi watched Tot do as she was told, pulling notebook paper and a pencil out of her school briefcase. She began to scratch things down on the paper as Sensei turned back to his blackboard.

Nagi decided to sneak a look over Tot's shoulder at what she was writing. Not surprisingly, it was nothing even close to what was being marked down on the board. She was doodling little bunnies and writing random things in hiragana and katakana; Nagi was not surprised in the least to see that there wasn't a single kanji on the paper. He shook his head silently and went back to looking over his own homework.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

After that first day of school, the days passed like quicksilver. Granted, school was still its usual, soul-draining, life-sucking experience. But now he had someone to share it all with. There's rarely anything more comforting than having one other person to share a horrible experience with, and there was no exception in Nagi's case. Just having Tot there to give him a reassuring smile or giggle made everything just that much better. Although, admittedly, he did worry a lot more now.

His school days were now spent watching Tot do her work, looking over her shoulder in all their classes and moving her pencil for her during quizzes. This was a difficult, but necessary, proposition for Nagi; his own grades began to slip a little as a result, but he had to do it to keep up appearances. Frequently, he found himself a little exhausted, but happier than he'd ever been.

The two of them were rarely seen separate, much to the chagrin of the boys in Nagi's class. The girls, on the other hand, despised Tot because the boys thought she was cute. Their days were usually filled with listening to the nasty comments and fending off guys with grabby hands.

Often, after school hours or during lunch, the two could be found sitting under a large ginkgo tree in the schoolyard. Nagi usually busied himself with a homework assignment (which Tot would copy later) and Tot would spend her time either eating one of the sandwiches she had packed for lunch or folding origami. This was usually the only quiet time that the two of them had; it was almost as if there was an invisible shield around the two of them and their tree.

Even through the haze of the late autumn days, Nagi had the strangest feeling almost every time that he looked at Tot. There was, of course, the feeling of affection, of never wanting to be alone again, but there was also something else that he hadn't felt before. It was foreboding and cold, a slithering, icy feeling that crawled through his veins and wrapped around his heart. It was never enough to worry about in itself, but he still felt it.

And there was always whatever Schuldich wanted as repayment to worry about...


	3. Silent Messiah: Third Chapter

**Disclaimer:** Standard stuff applies here. Wow, you read all the way to the third chapter? You're pretty brave, you know. Because this is where things start to get strange...

Silent Messiah  
by Crystal Dawn Phoenix  
Chapter Three

Early morning light poured in through the cracks in the blinds of the drapeless window. One of these small fissures of light flung itself right across the eyes of the sleeping boy with tousled brown hair. This, however, did not deter him from his continued sleep. As a matter of fact, unbeknownst to him, he was oversleeping. His alarm had gone off roughly an hour and a half ago, waking the other occupant of the bed, and causing her to shut off the alarm.

But she still hadn't woke Nagi.

Instead, Tot had risen, brushed her teeth, changed into her uniform, and fixed breakfast, all without Nagi's assistance. She knew that he had been given a large assignment the night before and had stayed up most of the night to complete it, so she hadn't wanted to trouble him.

But now there were only thirty minutes left until time to catch the train. Tot knew that she had to wake him up now, or he wouldn't have time to eat and still make it to the station.

"Nagi," she said quietly, bending over the bed and shaking his shoulder gently, "Nagi, wake up. It's almost time to go. You'll be late if you don't get up." Nagi groaned softly and rolled over to look at the alarm clock. He grabbed it with one hand and brought it to his face to read the numbers on it more clearly. As soon as the numbers clicked in his brain, his eyes shot open and he slammed the clock back on the bedside table.

Nagi almost swore to himself as he shot out of bed and over to his closet. He pulled a school uniform out and began throwing it on, forgetting all modesty. He had stripped down to his underwear and was halfway through pulling up his school pants before he turned around and noticed Tot. A light blush crept across his cheeks as he quickly pulled his pants up around his waist and zipped them.

"You're already dressed?" he asked, noticing her straight, crisp uniform. Tot nodded to him, smiling cheerily.

"I got up a while ago," she replied, "I've already made breakfast, too." Nagi reached for a clean undershirt and blinked, puzzled. Breakfast? He hadn't heard the smoke alarm go off yet... He decided not to press the subject, instead opting to throw the new undershirt on over his head.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" he asked, trying not to sound accusatory. The truth was, he was slightly irritated at getting up late, but since Tot was already ready to go, it would be an easy matter to make it to the train on time. He started zipping up his school jacket as he looked over at her.

"You were up late last night," Tot said matter-of-factly, the barest hint of a pout coming into her voice, "I thought you should have more sleep. So I got ready by myself." Nagi could hardly complain. Tot had managed to get dressed by herself and make her outfit look as neat as a pin. She had also managed to cook breakfast without setting the house on fire, or by the smell of it, even burning the toast. Nagi was torn between not wanting to insult Tot's intelligence, and wanting to know exactly how the hell she managed to do all of this. As it was, though, he was happy to settle for being led to the table for a quick breakfast.

When the two of them arrived in the beige and white wood-grain paneled kitchen, it was much as Nagi had expected. Schuldich was not yet awake, but Crawford was already sitting at the kitchen table, quietly sipping a cup of hot coffee, reading the paper, and slowly eating a piece of Tot's toast.

Tot had indeed somehow managed to cook the toast without burning it - a first for her - and had almost managed to get the eggs done enough. Nagi didn't complain - he thanked whatever God there was for small miracles and began to fix himself a plate. He was thoroughly amazed at what an improvement two weeks of practice could make.

Tot leaned over and gave him a small peck on the cheek as he started scooping scrambled eggs out of the skillet and onto his plate. The blush came back onto his cheeks again as Tot turned and headed back toward the living room.

"I'll go get our school things," she said, smiling, "I'll be right back!" Nagi nodded and took his plate to the table. He walked over to the cupboard, got down a large glass, and filled it with water. The water joined the plate on the table and Crawford did not look up as he sat down.  
Nagi began to eat as fast as he could without making himself sick. He glanced down at his watch - fifteen minutes left. If he hurried at everything, there should be no problem with making it to the train on time. Crawford took another sip of his coffee.

"So," the older man finally said, lowering the cup from his lips, "How far have you gotten on your assignment?" Nagi honestly didn't know what he expected to hear. In truth, it was a fairly formidable assignment - hacking into a rather large corporation's computer system and deleting evidence of a great deal of embezzlement. This corporation, unlike many others he'd gone up against, had actually had the foresight to use appropriate measures to block people like him. Appropriate, but not insurmountable.

Nagi swallowed a large bite of toast and eggs and then took a long drink of water. "I'm about a quarter of the way through," he said, forking some more eggs onto his toast, "This is a rather difficult assignment, isn't it?" It wasn't meant to challenge Crawford in any way; it was more of an offhanded comment, much like anyone else would comment on the weather. Crawford took another drag off of his coffee cup.

"Difficult, but it pays the bills," he said blandly. Nagi shrugged and Crawford flipped one of the pages of his paper. They sat in silence for a good while like this, Nagi eating and Crawford reading.

Several moments of still quiet were suddenly broken by the sound of the kitchen door swinging open. Tot burst in, carrying both her and Nagi's suitcases. Nagi looked from his nearly empty plate to his watch. Ten minutes to go.

"Are you ready to go?" Tot asked, hovering by the kitchen door as if to urge Nagi to hurry. He swallowed one last bite and rose from the table, plate in hand. The plate found itself in the sink and Nagi made his way over to the kitchen door to join Tot.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

The school day flew by, and for that Nagi was grateful. It wasn't that he was in any great hurry to get home and work on that assignment again, but anything was better than being with his peers. Immediately after school, he and Tot had found their way to their tree and once again set up camp beneath it. Nagi found that doing the childishly easy assignments handed to him in school was a great way to relieve stress. Having Tot beneath the tree with him made it that much better.

After an hour or so of working in his math book, he finished that assignment and snapped the book shut. He put the book down on the ground beside him and reached over to find his grammar book. That was when he noticed it. He stopped what he was doing and stared at Tot.

"What are you doing?" he asked, puzzled.

"Hnn?" Tot breathed, looking up, "Oh, just reading. It's a romance novel. It's really good." Nagi blinked, not believing his ears. Sure enough, there sat Tot, stuffed bunny propped up against her thigh. But instead of folding origami as Nagi was used to seeing her do, she had a large novel in hand. In the other hand was one of the sandwiches she'd packed earlier that day, half eaten.

Nagi looked at the novel's cover and read the title: "Journey, then Tomorrow". The first thought into his head was that the kanji in the title were not subscripted, meaning that there were no hiragana beneath them to spell out the words. The second thought into his head was that this book was probably too advanced for Tot to read. His brow creased in thought.

"May I look at it?" he asked, holding out his hand. Tot smiled and handed the book to him.

"Here you go!" she said. Nagi flipped to a passage in the middle and looked on in expressionless shock. Not only were none of the kanji subscripted, these were advanced kanji. In his opinion, way too advanced for someone who hadn't been able to write a single sentence with them just two weeks ago.

He looked over to Tot. She was smiling just as sweetly as ever. He closed the novel and laid it in his lap, trying to figure out what was going on. It might have been that Tot was just pretending to read it and gleaning the story from the illustrations, as children who want to impress adults often do. But he doubted she'd do that; after all, the book had no pictures that he could tell.

Could it be that Tot was just an incredibly fast learner and that no one had ever bothered to teach her anything? Judging from her grades at her last school, though, he doubted that to be the case.

As it was, there was just nothing else he could believe.

"Could I have my book back now?" Tot asked, sitting on her knees, smiling, and tilting her head to the side. Nagi blinked, ignoring the sudden chill that had come over him, and looked back at Tot. He handed the book back to her and she sat back down, opening it to the page that she had been on when she was interrupted.

"Tot," he said, getting her attention again, "Is that book good?" Tot smiled, obviously eager to share her new findings with him.

"Oh, yes!" she said enthusiastically. Nagi blinked again and wanted to press the issue further.

"What is it about?" he asked, testing to see if she actually knew. Tot put the book in her lap, pages down.

"It's about a boy who dies for the girl he loves," Tot responded, her face lighting up, "And then they're born again, and get a second chance at life. Doesn't that sound romantic?"

Nagi barely heard her question. And even if he had, he was simply too stunned to answer her intelligibly.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

A few more days passed quietly. Nothing more out of the ordinary happened and Nagi dismissed his earlier misgivings as simple paranoia or misunderstanding. He continued to work feverishly on Crawford's assignment, staying up until all hours of the night, every night. It was a wonder he even managed to stay awake through school each day. Then again, considering his penchant for long nights recently, he wasn't honestly all that surprised. All he really needed, he reasoned, was a great deal of caffeine.

With that small boon, he worked straight through the week, only getting perhaps three or four hours of sleep a night. Finally, on Saturday night, he managed to finish the last bit of the assignment. Their clients were in the clear and he could sleep in the next day with no serious repercussions. As the last file was deleted, Nagi reclined in his chair and stretched. For a moment, he fancied giving the corporation he'd just hacked a nasty virus to make up for the week he had to spend in their system. He quickly dismissed the idea as childish, though, reasoning that the corporation was just doing its job. Moreso, it would let them know that someone had definitely been there.

Finishing his stretch, he leaned forward and shut the computer down. The screen blinked to black, and he bent under the table and switched the hard drive off. At last, he stood and stretched, a better stretch than before, and rightly so; he'd been sitting most of the day Today, since school wasn't as long on Saturdays.

Eyes blurry and limbs atrophied, Nagi made his way to the door of the starry computer room. He turned the doorknob, opened the door, and hit the light switch. The track lighting went out, bathing the room in darkness and starlight.

There was nothing in this world, Nagi reasoned to himself, that he wanted more at the moment, than to just change into his pajamas and hop into the bed. He knew that as soon as his head hit the pillow he'd be asleep. He reached the door of his own room and opened it, fully intent on realizing his wish.

This room was just as quiet and dark as the rest of the house. As a matter of fact, the only sound Nagi could hear was that of Tot's steady, deep breathing. He could tell from her breathing that she was asleep. She had gone to bed several hours before him, just as she had every night that week. She hadn't liked it much at first; the first couple of times Nagi had tried to put her to bed without him, she'd fussed at him. But eventually, she had given in and just gone to bed by herself, much like tonight.

Nagi shut the door softly behind himself and made his way to where his pajamas lay across his clothes hamper. Nearly silently, he stripped, leaving his wrinkled school uniform in the hamper and pulling on his pajama shirt and pants. He didn't want to make any noise that might wake Tot up.

His feet padded soundlessly across the cold, western-style, wooden floor. Slowly, trying not to make any sudden movements, Nagi slipped between the covers on the right side of the bed. He curled onto his side, facing the outside of the bed, and closed his eyes. The haze of sleep would come any second now.

Instead of sleep, however, there was a small rustling noise behind his back. At first, Nagi thought it was just Tot rolling over in her sleep. As soon as he felt her slip an arm around his waist, though, he knew that was not quite the truth. He silently cursed himself for having woken her up.

"Nagi," she murmered softly, causing him to realize that she wasn't just behind him; she was cradled against his back, her face nuzzled into his neck. He could feel her lips pressing into his shoulder and her warm breath raised the hackles on the back of his neck. Even as she warmed him, though, he could still feel that fantastic chill racing through his veins; and in all reality, he couldn't say that it was exactly displeasing.

He moved his arm to cover the one that Tot had slid across his waist, intertwining his fingers with her own. She gave him a squeeze, causing him to relax. Once again, Nagi believed that sleep would soon be on its way.

Instead, he felt Tot's fingers loosen from his own. Her hand slid underneath his shirt and pressed against his meager stomach, pressing his back into her own stomach. Nagi couldn't help but wonder what Tot thought she was doing. Was she still asleep? He felt her kisses on the back of his neck and couldn't help but wonder.

Nagi ceased moving completely, though, as her fingers slid a fraction of an inch lower, tucking underneath the waistbands of his pajamas and underwear. He could feel his face burning, feel his heart pounding in his ears. Her hand pressed against his lower belly and moved a little further down. He had never been touched there by anyone in his life. It tickled just a bit and caused a warmth to spread throughout his body.

In truth, he would have been enjoying it if he didn't have roughly a million questions racing through his mind. First and foremost amongst them was 'Why in the world is she doing this?' Was Tot acting of her own free will? If she was, what on Earth had possessed her to do something so unlike her? She had never even suggested anything of this sort before, so where had she picked this behavior up at? More so, should he let her continue? They didn't have any sort of protection or anything nearby...

Tot's fingers snuck a little further down and gently wrapped around something firm. The pounding of Nagi's heart in his ears drowned out the noise of his conflicting thoughts. The warmth spreading throughout his body finally beat back the chill and caused him to gasp quietly.  
Perhaps a bit of fooling around wouldn't hurt, he reasoned to himself. It wasn't too soon for that, was it? They didn't actually have to do anything else. He was tired, after all. Just a little necking, and he could go to sleep, and then...

And then Tot moved her fingers. And all reasoning stopped dead.

Nagi rolled over to face Tot, causing her to lose her grip and slide her hand out of his pants. It reflexively clutched at his back and drew him close. His own hands pressed against Tot's back, forcing her stomach against his. He found her mouth in the dark and kissed her deeply, causing everything else in the world to be covered by an impenetrable shroud of darkness. The only things that mattered then were physical: her tongue pressing into his, her breasts heaving with every breath she took, her stomach pressing his own erection against him.

His hand moved further down her back, exploring it as though Nagi had never actually seen it before. He reached the hem of her nightshirt and realized that she hadn't worn any panties to bed. Through the twilight haze in his mind, he slid his hand down between her legs.

Suddenly, reality hit Nagi with the force of a freight train. Both the warmth and the chill he had felt earlier deserted him as Tot abruptly pulled away from him, shrieking in terror. He sat bolt upright, watching her jump backwards off the bed clumsily. The jerk back into the real world had disoriented him to the point of dizziness and motion sickness; even so, he could still see Tot's terrified face in the dim moonlight. Even at this distance, he could tell that she was crying uncontrollably.

"Tot?" he asked, his throat dry, "What...?" He buried his face in his hand and shook his head, trying to kill the dizziness. Tot took a step back.

"Nagi-kun," she said, almost choked with sobs, "Why did you..? That's bad! Bad!" She completely broke down into incoherent sobbing, wiping helplessly at her tearstained face with the cuffs of her too-large nightshirt. Nagi fought back the nausea he was feeling and got out of bed. Slowly, so as not to startle her, he walked over and carefully placed his arms around her. Tot held back for just a second before she flung her arms around him and cried loudly into his chest.

Nagi rested his chin on Tot's head. What in the world had just happened? It was obvious that Tot was not herself; she didn't even realize that she had been the one who had started touching him. Worse, Nagi knew that he'd lost control of himself as well.

There was only one person he knew of who could pull a stunt like that off.

"Schuldich," he muttered to himself through gritted teeth.


	4. Silent Messiah: Fourth Chapter

**Disclaimer:** If you're reading this, you are a masochist. I just thought I'd let you in on that little secret. Anyway, the only characters that really belong to me are the school people, and I really don't want them. The rest of these guys belong to Take-san. And I think Kyoko Tsuchiya has some claim to at least Schwarz, too. Just so ya know.

Silent Messiah  
by Crystal Dawn Phoenix  
Chapter Four

The next morning, Nagi woke to find Tot still asleep, clutching his hand with one hand and the stuffed rabbit with the other. He sleepily wondered why this was the first time he'd seen her sleep with it in almost a week. For a while, he had thought that she had simply been comfortable enough to forget to bring it to bed. Then the awkward memories from the night before surfaced in his brain and he knew exactly why she had it in a death grip. It was a security blanket.  
N

agi's face burned with shame and embarrassment. How could he have done something like that? Tot hadn't only cried, she had screamed. He briefly wondered what had happened to her before to make her so afraid of being touched like that. That thought was pushed out of his mind, however, when he remembered what it was that he had wanted to do as soon as he woke up.

Find Schuldich.

Choke Schuldich.

It seemed like a solid enough plan.

Slowly, Nagi untangled his hand from Tot's and quietly left the bed. His head still felt as though it had been run over by a cross-country truck. He didn't quite think it was only from doing that assignment, but he didn't know what else it could have been from. A new wave of dizziness overtook him as he stood up and began walking toward his clothes. Was this a side-effect of being mind controlled? He wasn't sure, but he hoped like Hell that an aspirin would take care of it.

Quickly throwing on his slightly crumpled uniform, Nagi looked over at his alarm clock. It was almost noon. Schuldich would probably be in the living room, watching the telly, or else hanging around in the kitchen. First, though, Nagi decided to head for the bathroom to take an aspirin and brush his teeth.

After that was out of the way, he headed down the large wooden staircase into the living room. It was a decent sized room, big enough to contain two couches, a recliner, a coffee table, and a big screen television, among other things. Several bookshelves also lined the walls, each bowing under the weight of the books stacked neatly on them. Crawford had alphabetized each book by author when they moved in. Nagi always thought he was a little odd for that. Or a 'neat freak' would probably be closer to the truth; there was not a speck of dust or an out-of-place article in the entire room. He was certain that normal houses had at least a bit of clutter. Crawford would never allow that.

Along with the bit of routine clutter, Schuldich was also absent. He wasn't at his normal post in front of the telly, nor was he anywhere else in the room. The whole house actually seemed to be still.

The strange absence of Schuldich's mouth didn't deter Nagi, though. He knew he had to be around the house somewhere. There was nothing else he could possibly be doing on a Sunday morning.

Just to be on the safe side, Nagi poked his head into the kitchen to see if perhaps he was in there. But no; the kitchen was not only empty, but spotless as well. He knew that if Schuldich had already eaten, it would have been after Crawford. And Schuldich always left a mess in the kitchen.

Nagi pulled his head back through the door and swore silently. If he was neither in the living room nor in the kitchen, then that meant that he had not yet gotten out of bed. At least that made it simpler for Nagi to figure out where he was exactly. Determined, Nagi made his way back across the living room and up the stairs.

When Nagi knocked on the door to Schuldich's room, however, there was no answer. There were two possible reasons for this. First of all, it was entirely possible that Schuldich was still asleep. Nagi could think of several days that the red head had gotten out of bed past noon. Another possibility was that Schuldich could sense that Nagi wanted him dead on a piece of toast, and was not going to open the door. Nagi believed the latter before he did the former. As such, he knocked again, louder this time. And once more. But there was still no answer. He knew that if Schuldich had been asleep before, there was no way he was now. But there were still no noises coming from inside the room.

Sick of knocking, Nagi finally gave in and opened the door. To his surprise, it was neither locked nor barricaded; it swung open freely, giving him a clear view of the room inside.

Each of the windows had been hung with opaque black crepe paper so that light could neither enter nor escape. As such, the room was almost too dark to see anything at all, but Nagi could still make most of the shapes out. He could see Schuldich's night stand, which held a reading lamp, an alarm, and several beer cans. The chest of drawers in the corner supported a mirror, a lava lamp, and several pieces of clothing. Nagi looked at the lava lamp and briefly wondered if anyone had informed Schuldich that the 70's - nay, even the 90's - had been over for a long time yet. He let the lava lamp leave his field of vision, simply chalking another one up to his teammate's eccentricity.

His eyes wandered to the sloppy, un-made bed in the middle of the room. The black satin sheets were unfolded, crumpled, and sliding halfway off the bed and into the floor. He studied the folds and creases in the sheets and upon determining them to be most un-Schuldich-like, turned around and shut the door. The sooner he got away from that creepy room, the better.

As Nagi stood outside the door to Schuldich's room, he turned his questions over and over in his mind. If Schuldich wasn't in the house, where was he? Did he get sent out to run an errand or a mission? Or, more likely, did he want to pull a disappearing act until Nagi was considerably less pissed off? Aggravated, Nagi stalked off down the hall. Crawford would almost certainly be in his study. If anyone would know, it would be him.

A few moments later, Nagi stood outside Crawford's study, which was only a few meters down the hallway. He raised his hand to knock, but before he could strike the wooden surface of the door, a voice sounded from the other side.

"It's open," Crawford called. Nagi lowered his hand to the doorknob, slightly irked that Crawford hadn't even given him a chance to knock. Did he already know that he was looking for Schuldich, too? Or for what reason? Nagi sincerely hoped not. Not only was it incredibly personal, it was also terribly embarrassing.

Nagi pushed those thoughts away and turned the doorknob. When he opened the door, the room inside revealed a stark contrast to Schuldich's messy, dark room. Instead, it was much like the living room; neat, well-furnished, and overly organized. It was also well-lit; Crawford had drawn the shades on his large window, flooding the room with sunlight. Even though it was bright, it was still cramped. Between the huge shelves full of books (all alphabetized, of course), the large desk, the leather chairs, the end tables, the new computer, and the old typewriter, there was barely room enough to walk.

Crawford glanced up from the papers he was perusing on his desk to regard Nagi. In all fairness, Crawford thought the younger man looked like Hell warmed over. There was a pasty pall cast over his skin and he looked slightly anemic. He hadn't even bothered to comb his hair before he left his room. Quite simply, he looked sick. Crawford briefly wondered if it was perhaps from overwork.

Nagi looked over all the papers stacked neatly on Crawford's desk. There were file folders and all the usual papers and a datebook, but there was something he hadn't noticed before. It looked almost like a timetable, but with little symbols beside the times instead of appointments. Judging from the state of the desk, he had obviously interrupted him during some work. Then again, Nagi thought, when was the man *not* working? He shrugged that though off and looked at Crawford.

"Have you seen Schuldich?" Nagi asked. Crawford looked at him for another second before shrugging and giving him a dismissive wave of the hand.

"He was called out on a mission yesterday afternoon," Crawford responded, "He and Farfarello have been gone since." Nagi let the words process into his mind. If Schuldich wasn't there last night, then he couldn't possibly have been the one causing him and Tot to act so strangely. He knew that there was no one else who could have caused it. The thought that Tot might have a split personality occurred to him, but was dismissed just as quickly; if she had one, then he definitely had one as well. She wasn't the only one who had acted strange.

"Why?" Crawford asked, obviously having noted the perplexed look on Nagi's face, "What do you need from him?" The way that Crawford was looking at him told Nagi that he definitely suspected something. He took a moment to answer, thinking of the best way to explain without actually telling Crawford anything.

"Tot's been acting strange," he finally replied, "I wanted to see if Schuldich knew anything about it." Crawford seemed to understand at least a little of what he was getting at. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and Nagi hoped that he wouldn't ask for a description of said strange behavior.

"And why would you want to speak to Schuldich about her behavior?" Crawford asked, "Do you suspect he's playing pranks on you with her?" Nagi started a bit to hear Crawford ask such a precise question. Even so, he tried to hide his surprise.

"A bit," Nagi answered, "Or if not, then at least he could tell me why she's acting odd. Telepathy and all that." Crawford seemed to be pinning him down with his stare. He hated to be made nervous like this.

"'Acting odd' how, exactly?" Crawford finally asked. Nagi thought quickly, trying his best to come up with another noncommittal answer.

"Saying strange things," Nagi finally said, a slight blush coming into his cheeks, "Touching me in odd ways. Reading books that are far too advanced for her. And she doesn't burn the toast anymore at breakfast. You don't know anything about it, do you?" Nagi hoped that by asking him a question, he would be able to avoid having to answer any more embarrassing questions.

"No," Crawford responded, turning away to look at the papers on his desk, "No, I don't." Nagi could tell from the tone of his voice and the fact that he was no longer looking up that the conversation was over. And judging by Crawford's avoidance of the question, he couldn't help but feel that he *did* know something about it all.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Another week passed in relative quiet. Nagi was given a considerably less demanding assignment, a simple data entry job. This one was nowhere near as taxing and didn't keep him up until all hours of the night. For that much, he was at least thankful.

Tot, on the other hand, seemed to be a bit more withdrawn since the incident on Saturday night. She stuck to their general routine, but kept quiet more often and generally seemed to be trying to stay out of Nagi's way. Nagi wondered if perhaps her quietness was because she was becoming a bit more reflective. Of course, if he asked her if anything was wrong, she would simply smile and give him an answer that would change the subject. He knew that he would just have to watch and wait.

The weather had changed a bit during the week, making it almost too cold to stay outside beneath their ginkgo tree in the afternoons. Nagi expected snow sometime within the next week or two. As it was, Tot insisted that he wear a jacket every day before they left for school. Since she didn't have one at all, on Tuesday afternoon they had gone out and gotten her a thick pink coat with a fluffy white collar and cuffs. She wore it stubbornly to school every day afterwards.

The two of them were sitting beneath their tree again on Friday afternoon before Nagi noticed anything strange again. The weather that day had been chilly and the sky overcast. There was a sharp breeze blowing, and he and Tot had bundled up into their coats before coming outside. Nagi was halfway through his calculus homework before he glanced over to see what Tot was doing. When he noticed it, he dropped his pencil and gaped.

There, in her lap, was the exact same book that he was working out of. She scratched at a piece of paper with a pencil held in one hand, and tapped numbers into a calculator with the other. Nagi blinked once, just to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating, and then decided that since the scene did not change, that he could officially be freaked out.

"T-Tot," he finally managed to stammer, "Why are you doing that?" Tot looked up at him and smiled.

"Why not?" she asked innocently, "It's easy!" Nagi felt as though he might well pass out. Then he noticed that she had neither her stuffed rabbit nor any snacks.

"Where... where is your stuffed bunny today?" he asked, trying to make the world make sense again. Tot smiled sadly and looked down at her book, making a few more marks on her paper.  
"'When I was a child,'" she quoted, "'I spake as a child. And now that I am grown, it is time to put childish things away.'" Nagi tried as hard as he could to appear as though he was not surprised. In truth, however, it really didn't work much. His face adopted a genuinely shocked, if somewhat mortified, expression.

Before he could ask any more questions or become any more disturbed, though, the sound of several pairs of feet approaching their tree broke his reverie. Both Nagi and Tot looked up to see Kawatani and two of his friends walking toward them, grinning.

"Aww, how cute!" Kawatani remarked, a mocking smile painting his face, "Looks like the fag's got a girlfriend." Kawatani's two friends snickered to each other. Nagi pretended not to hear them; instead, he looked back down at his calculus book, stuffing his anger down. Not only did they invade the sanctity of his and Tot's tree, they'd also insulted him. It was almost too much to bear. Tot, on the other hand, continued to watch them.

"Hey, Sumire-chan," Kawatani continued, bending over a bit to be better able to talk to Tot, "Why don't you ditch that loser and come hang out with us? We could take you out for tea..." Tot smiled politely up at him.

"No, thank you," she said dismissively, "I'm fine with Nagi-kun." This answer did not seem to satisfy Kawatani. Nagi watched as he tried to sweet talk Tot into leaving, an unfamiliar anger bubbling up in his veins. Naturally, he had been angry at these idiots before, but never like now. It felt cold and black and hard, like it might explode out at any moment - almost like the first time he'd used his telekinesis.

"Aww, that can't be true," Kawatani said, "Just look at him. No way he could ever make you as happy as I can." There was a patronizing tone to his voice that made Nagi even angrier. He tried to reason with himself against acting out. He knew that if he did anything, he would wind up going too far and using his TK. And if he did that right now, he was sure he wouldn't stop until someone was dead. Not that he was particularly concerned about whether these idiots lived or died; it was more that he didn't want to reveal his powers to anyone.

Tot, too, was beginning to look a bit irked. She scowled a bit at Kawatani before answering him again. "That's not very nice," she pointed out, "I don't think I want to go anywhere with you." Kawatani began to look a bit deterred, but didn't give up yet.

"Hey, don't be such a prude," he said pointedly, "Getting rid of that creep for just a little while won't hurt you, you know." Tot's scowl broke into a full expression of loathing. Nagi, too, was still having trouble containing his aggravation.

"Don't call Nagi-kun a creep!" Tot yelled, putting her book aside and standing up. Kawatani backed up and stood upright, a little startled that she would dare to get in his face. "I don't like you," Tot said flatly, "You should leave now." The three of them stared at her for a second, looking at her pouty, scowling face. Then, all three broke out into gales of laughter.

"And what are you going to do if we don't want to?" Kawatani asked, mocking her. Tot balled her hands up into fists at her side for a second before she raised one to slap him. Nagi stood, trembling with anger when Kawatani caught her hand in midair.

"Ow! Stop it!" Tot said, trying to wrench her wrist away from his grip. Nagi felt something snap in the back of his mind. A wave of cold washed over his body, and a cold breeze began to shake the bare branches of the nearby trees.

"Get away from her," he said quietly, causing all three of the other boys to turn in his direction. They looked vaguely surprised that he had spoken for a moment before Kawatani's face broke into a nasty frown. He released his grip on Tot's wrist and stepped toward Nagi, looking down on him and cracking his knuckles.

"You wanna do something about it?" he asked, the tone of his voice daring Nagi to say something, "You want a piece of me, pussy?" Kawatani's two friends laughed at this remark. Nagi didn't say a word; instead, he stared straight ahead at the larger boy, waiting to see what he'd do. He wouldn't have long to wait.

"You know, I've been looking for a reason to put you in your place for a while now," Kawatani remarked. The next second, Nagi heard Tot scream and felt something very hard and very large slam into his face. Had he been able to reason at that moment, he would have realized that it was Kawatani's fist, and that he had been punched. As it was, however, he didn't think about anything other than the cold snap in his mind. It had finally revealed itself to be a blind rage.

Nagi stumbled backwards for a second before righting himself and bringing a hand to his face. Kawatani laughed mockingly, massaging his knuckles.

"Did that hurt?" he asked in that familiar, condescending tone of his. Oddly enough, though, neither of his friends were laughing. They were both staring at him in abject horror, one of them actually pointing at him. Kawatani, on the other hand, paid no attention to them. Instead, he grabbed Nagi's collar and hauled him over to get a better shot at him.

"Hey, man," one of the boys stammered, "Don't mess with him!" The other looked to be on the verge of running away.

"Lookit his eyes!" the other one said frantically, pointing, "He's not human!" Kawatani glanced back over his shoulder to get a look at his friends.

"What the hell are you talking about?" he asked, turning back to look at Nagi, "Of course he's..." He stopped mid-sentence, releasing Nagi's collar and taking a step back in the process. The look on his face would probably have amused Nagi, if he hadn't been too busy trying to hold back his rage to notice. As it was, however, he didn't have much longer to worry about it, anyway.

"Leave him alone!" Tot finally screeched, knocking Nagi back from the verge of a murderous rampage. What happened next, however, sent him from being angry to being confused and more disturbed than he had been all week. Tot held both hands out in front of her, palms outward, and bared her teeth at the three bullies.

"What the hell is she doing?" Kawatani asked, stopping to stare at her. His two friends, on the other hand, looked once again to be ready to flee.

"Her eyes!" one screamed, "They're the same as his!" With this, both of them began to run. Kawatani also noticed what they were looking at. Nagi looked over as well, curious to see what they were rambling about.

When he looked at Tot, however, he not only realized that her eyes were far different from what they normally looked like, they were far different from his own. Instead of their normal, clear blue color, they had hazed over into a dull gold shade. Perhaps more disturbing was the fact that her pupils had elongated, turning into thin, vertical slits. Nagi thought they made her look like a demon, and he began to wonder if his looked the same, and if so, why. Then something even stranger happened. A small, electrified ball of black energy began to form between Tot's hands.

"Holy..." Kawatani muttered, frozen in his tracks. Even if he'd had time to run after that, he wouldn't have gotten very far. As it was, the blast sent him and his two friends flying into the brick walls of the school building, a good thirty meters away. Nagi wasn't sure if the three of them were hurt, or even alive. And he knew that he didn't care, either.

Instead, Nagi stared in horror as Tot took several deep breaths and lowered her arms, sweat pouring down her face. Whatever she had just done wasn't telekinesis, of that much he was certain. And when it happened, why did he feel that chill run down his back again? He put his questions on hold, however, when he saw Tot slump to her knees and cover her mouth with her hand. He rushed over to her, throwing an arm around her back to support her.

"Tot, what did you just do?" he asked finally, almost frantic. Instead of answering him, though, Tot began coughing uncontrollably. Nagi noticed a few drops of thick, black fluid slide between her fingers and to the ground. When they hit the dirt, the drops hissed a bit and then evaporated. He had never seen anything like it before in his life.

Finally, Tot stopped coughing and slowly looked up at him. Her eyes were their normal blue color again, and her face clearly betrayed the fact that she was spent.

"Nagi-kun," she said softly, trying to smile at him, "I want to go home now." Nagi nodded and got her to her feet. A few steps later, Tot lost consciousness.


	5. Silent Messiah: Final Chapter

**Disclaimer:** I take no responsibility for what the ending of this does to your immortal soul. Whatsoever. And I also take no responsibility for any of these characters, because I don't own 'em. Whatsoever.

Silent Messiah  
by Crystal Dawn Phoenix  
Final Chapter

The streets were almost completely dark by then. Since winter was coming, dusk came sooner and sooner in the evenings, and this evening was no exception. In addition to being dim, it was also getting colder. The thick scent of rain hung heavily in the air, threatening to pour down any second.

Nagi could feel the stinging breeze as it brushed his skin. But it didn't stop there - it crawled down through his veins, into his muscles, boring into his bones. He could no longer deny that the cold he felt was unnatural. The problem was, even though he knew that it wasn't natural, he couldn't tell exactly *what* it was.

Tot surely wouldn't be any help. He knew now that she had likely been feeling the same things, but stronger. As it was, she was either unconscious or very close to it; she only stirred to groan in pain or clutch at invisible wounds. Nagi had slung her arm around his shoulder and drug her along with him in that manner. He didn't think he'd done a bad job, either. They'd made it all the way from the school yard where she had collapsed, to roughly twenty meters outside of the house they shared with the other members of Schwarz.

The wind gave one last breath before it finally gave up. Nagi suddenly felt small, cold, stinging drops of rain hit the top of his head and the outside of his coat. Tot whimpered a bit as the rain began to hit her as well. He swore to himself and picked up his pace a bit. It wasn't far to go now - just down the sidewalk a bit, up the driveway, and then up the stairs. Then he could put Tot to bed and figure out what was wrong with her - what was wrong with both of them.

The rain began to come down in torrents as soon as they reached the driveway. Nagi hated the feeling of the cold water sliding down through his hair and over his eyes. He blinked it away and fumbled for his house keys with his free hand. Finally reaching the safety of the front porch, Nagi pulled his keys out of his coat and held Tot close. A few seconds later, he opened the front door with a loud 'bang!'

As Nagi entered, three familiar faces turned to watch him. Schuldich, Farfarello, and Crawford regarded the two of them apathetically as they stood in the doorway. There was a small stack of books on the coffee table between the three of them, and Crawford once again appeared to be reading the paper. He and Schuldich had small mugs of coffee. Farfarello, on the other hand, sat on the far end of the couch, watching the two of them as though he were waiting on something. Nagi stood still, dripping on the wooden floor with his shoes still on, waiting for a reprimand which did not come.

"Tot is sick," he finally said, "And I think I may be as well." No one looked surprised or upset to hear this. Nagi wanted to scream at them. He wanted them to help or laugh or do anything other than just sit there. Frustrated, he finally stepped over the threshold with her, allowing the door to swing shut behind them.

"I know," Crawford said calmly, flipping a page of his newspaper. Schuldich grinned at them, that annoying, knowing grin that was meant to let Nagi know that it was he who was in control of the situation. The idea suddenly struck him that the time had come to pay the piper.

"Indeed it has," Schuldich said, smirking as though there was a joke that only he knew, "Why don't you put the girl to bed and then come back down here? We need to talk to you." If Nagi had felt bad coming home, he felt ten times worse now. Silently, he headed for the stairs with Tot.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wet blue hair lay in tangles across the pillows in Nagi's bed. He had managed to change Tot's clothes and dry her off a bit before taking her hair down and putting her in her nightshirt. And throughout the entire ordeal, she hadn't really been coherent enough to say a word. She would blink occasionally. Her hands would clutch at fleeting aches and her face would contort in pained grimaces, but it wasn't enough to say that she was awake at all.

The truth was, Nagi was beginning to feel sick as well. He wasn't certain if it was what was affecting Tot, or if it was just from watching her in so much pain. He smiled sadly and bent over her, smoothing back the hair on her forehead. In his mind, though, he was trying to get ready to talk to his teammates. It was going to be taxing.

"Please don't worry," he whispered, "I'll try to fix it." He gave her a small kiss in the middle of her forehead. As he leaned back to go, Tot brought her hand to her head and caught Nagi's hand.

"Nagi-kun?" she asked weakly, her eyes remaining shut tightly. Nagi looked just a bit stunned.

"What?" he asked, wondering if she was actually awake.

"Nagi-kun," she said slowly, "Please promise. Promise me, if I change a lot, you'll still love me?" This added one more mark to the list of things that had confused Nagi today. Instead of raising the point, however, he squeezed Tot's hand gently.

"I promise," he said. She smiled and released his hand, appearing to fall into a labored sleep once again. Nagi sighed reflexively and headed for the door. The coldness had left his skin, instead opting to travel to his gut and bundle up there in a large knot. He knew that a part of it was from his apprehension of facing the other three.

Swallowing back the last of his fear, he stepped out the bedroom door and into the hallway.  
A short time later, he stood on the stairway overlooking the living room. His three teammates still sat there, looking as calm and collected as ever. A large bottle of dark red wine had replaced the coffee that Schuldich and Crawford had been drinking. The cork had not yet been pulled on it, though, and four glasses sat empty around it.

Schuldich could still be seen to be wearing that same feline grin, and Crawford was still calmly flipping his paper. The only one who seemed to notice his presence on the stairs at all was Farfarello; the white haired man was staring openly at him. Nagi couldn't help but be unnerved.

"Well," Crawford finally spoke, not turning to face him, "Don't keep everyone waiting." Nagi did as he was told, walking mechanically down the stairs. Crawford put the paper down onto the table as Schuldich picked up the bottle of wine and a corkscrew that had been placed on the coffee table with it.

"It's about time you got down here," Schuldich said, screwing the corkscrew into the top of the bottle of wine. He pulled on the corkscrew, causing the cork to come out with a resounding 'pop' sound. Nagi watched, confused but wanting to hide it from the others. Schuldich tossed him a look over his shoulder and began pouring the wine.

As he reached the couch and sat down, Schuldich handed a full glass to him. Reluctantly, as though he thought it might be poisonous, Nagi took the glass. One by one, Schuldich handed glasses to the other two and then poured one for himself.

"A toast," Schuldich said finally, smirking at Nagi, "To Nagi. For single-handedly doing what the entire Estet could not." Nagi had not the first clue what Schuldich was talking about. The other two raised their glasses and gave him knowing looks. The corners of Crawford's mouth had also begun to twitch into something resembling a smile. He lifted the glass of wine to his mouth and drank as Nagi looked on, confused and quickly losing what was left of his well-worn temper.

"I don't care about toasting or what the Estet could or couldn't do," Nagi finally said smartly, "Tot is sick. What did you do to her?" He didn't care if it sounded accusatory or if it sounded rude. Crawford and Schuldich, at the very least, knew what was wrong with her.

"Us?" Crawford asked, lowering the wine glass and looking over the rims of his glasses at Nagi, "*We* didn't do anything." Schuldich's smirk, if possible, seemed to get broader.

"No, Nagi," Schuldich followed up neatly, "You were the one who caused this." Nagi glared at Schuldich. The red head simply smiled back sweetly.

"I haven't done anything," he snapped. Crawford leaned over the table and picked a small book off the stack that had been placed in the middle of the table. Nagi recognized it as the same strange dayplanner-type book that had been on Crawford's desk last Sunday.

"So you say," Crawford replied dismissively, "Can you tell me what this is?" He held it up for Nagi to see. There were the same strange symbols and there was a date at the top of the page. Instead of the current date, however, it was a page from roughly six months ago, with the date circled in red. Nagi studied the symbols lining the side of the page - he thought they looked familiar, and he was right. They were planetary symbols.

"Isn't that an... ephemeris?" he asked haltingly, wondering what it had to do at all with his and Tot's condition. It looked to him like one of the books that astrologers used to draw up birth charts. The truth was, though, he'd always dismissed such things as utter nonsense, a refuge of the ignorant and gullible. As such, he hadn't devoted much time to studying them.

"Yes, it is," Crawford replied, holding it out to him, "Now, can you tell me what is special about the day I've circled?" Nagi took the book from him and looked at the date. May 21st. He looked at it for a second, the memories dawning on him. He had never really placed the events with the date before then.

Yes, he knew what was so special about that day. He remembered it like it was yesterday. The battle with Weiß; begging Tot not to go; watching as she ran away from him; and finally, watching her lie on the floor, dying. He had cradled her still body, cauterizing her wound as he screamed in anguish. As he shouted, he let loose a blast of raw telekinesis, demolishing Schreient's mansion. When he woke later that night, it was raining and cold, just like tonight. And Tot was gone.

Nagi calmed himself and stared blankly at the ephemeris. "I remember," he said firmly, "That was the night you took Fujimiya Aya from Schreient." Crawford smirked at him, causing him to get frustrated all over again.

"What about it?" he finally said.

"Two days later was when the Estet performed their ceremony," Crawford reminded him, "Turn to that page and compare the positions of the planets." Nagi glared at him briefly, but did as he was told anyway. He looked down at the planetary symbols and the degrees and signs of the zodiac listed beside each of them. On the first page, each planet was at 0 degrees of their respective signs, with the moon void of course until around 9:30 pm. On the other page, the planets had moved a little, but each was still in its respective sign. Nagi had no clue what any of this was supposed to mean to him.

"I don't understand," Nagi said plainly, putting the ephemeris on the coffee table, "What does that have to do with me?" Crawford gave Nagi a look that he reserved only for those that he thought were being complete idiots as he leaned over and picked his ephemeris up off the table.

"Why do you think the Estet chose the day they did for the ceremony?" Crawford asked blandly. Nagi blinked and his eyes went wide.

"Because... of the alignment of the planets," he remembered aloud. Nagi also remembered what the ceremony was supposed to do; it was supposed to bring a spirit from beyond into the comatose girl's body. If the planets were similarly aligned that day as well... Nagi tried to wrap his mind around the possibility.

"But why?" he asked after a few more seconds of thought, "Why did they wait? Why didn't they just do it that first night instead?" Crawford shrugged.

"They didn't divulge that to me," he replied coolly, "It could have been that they didn't get organized in time for the ceremony to happen the first night. My personal theory is that they were waiting for the moon to move into a weak aspect with Pluto." Nagi didn't ask. He didn't need any more confusion today.

"So," Nagi said slowly, running his hand through his hair and setting his glass on the table, "That thing they were trying to summon... Ended up in Tot instead? Because she was near death?" It was less a question and more Nagi trying to sort out the thoughts that were going through his head. The looks he got from his teammates suggested, however, that he was getting closer to the truth. Nagi no longer even had the energy to be angry with them.

"It was more likely because of the outburst you had," Crawford said smartly, reopening the ephemeris, "But I'm certain that was part of it."

"The Beast," Schuldich said suddenly, causing Nagi to start. He looked over at Schuldich, eyes narrowing.

"What?" he asked.

"That's what it told me to call it," Schuldich replied, grinning slyly, "When it spoke to me. It has a name. And it didn't come into Tot 'instead' of anything. It came into her 'as well as'." Nagi glared openly at the red head.

"'As well as' what?" he asked, Schuldich almost tangibly eating away at his temper. Schuldich leaned closer to him and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper.

"When you kissed her that night," he hissed, "Did you taste her blood?" Nagi thought it was not only an insipid question, but a condescending, inane one as well. Her lung had been punctured; of course her mouth was full of blood. He couldn't help but taste it.

"Of course I did," he said angrily, "What does it matter?" Schuldich grinned a nasty, sinister grin at Nagi.

"He's in her blood," Schuldich replied, pointing a finger at Nagi's chest, "And he's in yours, too."

Nagi once again tried to show no reaction, but inside he was reeling. The demon, or creature, or ghost, or whatever it was, it was inside both of them.

"How do you know?" Nagi asked, his mouth suddenly becoming dry, "How do you know it's in me?" It was a stupid question, but it was the only one he could really think of at the moment.

"How do you think we found out about it in the first place?" Schuldich asked. Nagi knew at once that it was a rhetorical question. "I'm sure that you don't have the first clue, so I'll go ahead and tell you," he said smartly, his eyes narrowing, "I heard him calling to me from the back of your mind. That night you were looking up her case file on the internet. Yes, he called out to me. What do you think made you so eager to go looking for her? He did. What do you think made you say yes to my proposal so quickly? He did." If Nagi was reeling before, he felt like he was about to get motion sickness now. He knew he wasn't just a puppet on a string. That simply could not be. Hadn't he wanted to see Tot because he missed her? Because he loved her?

"Don't make me laugh," Schuldich said cruelly, once again replying to his thoughts and not his words, "Don't you know what 'love' is yet? There is no such thing as love. People feel lonely, or bored, or scared, or just plain horny, they latch onto the first person that passes by, and they call it 'love'. I thought you knew that by now."

Nagi felt sick to his stomach. It wasn't just because Schuldich was needling him; it was more because he knew that there was some truth to what Schuldich was saying. And it was a disgusting truth, a filthy truth: a truth he would rather not have known.

And finally, after sorting out the roiling feelings of nausea, Nagi's mind began to formulate questions.

"What did it want?" Nagi asked weakly, "Why did it make me seek her out?" Schuldich shut his eyes and grinned secretively.

"I think you know the answer to that," he replied, "If you sit still and listen to him for a second." Nagi thought for a second, and then it struck him.

"It... He wants," Nagi stammered, clutching handfuls of hair in his hand as he leaned forward, "He wants us to unite him. To make him whole again." Was that what happened Saturday night? Was the creature just trying to use him and Tot to reunite its disparate parts? If so, which one would all of it end up in? How would it decide?

"I don't think you really understand what he wants," Crawford said, "Or you don't want to admit to yourself what he wants." Nagi looked at Crawford in confusion and anger. Once again, he shut his eyes and tried to listen for the other voice inside him. When it spoke, Nagi felt more than nauseous: he felt as though he might faint from anger and disgust. He buried his head in his hands and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs.

"He wants us," Nagi said slowly, quietly, and deliberately, "He wants us to bear a child for him. He wants an empty vessel." When Schuldich grinned again, Nagi thought that he might well snap then and there and just punch him.

"Why do you think the Estet wanted to use that comatose girl?", Schuldich asked, "Her spirit wouldn't fight with him. And her body would never age. She was the perfect vessel."

"The child he wants would give him a new physical body," Crawford said, reminding Nagi of a very detached doctor, "With no other soul to interfere. And from there..."

"The end of everything," Farfarello hissed, actually speaking for the first time, "A Messiah of Chaos."

"I thought you had come close the night I was gone," Schuldich said, smirking, "I really expected better of you, you know. I can't believe you're such a dull kid." Nagi didn't respond. He clutched at his hair, trying to restrain himself enough not to pull it out. He knew he was starting to shake, and he didn't care if anyone saw him this time.

"I won't do it," he finally mumbled, barely loud enough for the rest of them to hear, "I won't do it. I won't let him hurt her. And I won't let him use any child of ours that way." Crawford snorted. Farfarello looked slightly offended and Schuldich sneered.

"That's very sentimental of you," Schuldich replied, "But I don't think you can hold out against him forever. He's already almost completely taken her, you know. She's become so much more like you because of him, hasn't she? I hear she's been reading novels and working calculus problems..." Nagi screwed his eyes shut and clamped his hands over his ears.

"Shut up!" he finally screamed, almost bereft of any reasoning abilities, "I won't do it! I won't!" He suddenly sprang from the couch and ran toward the kitchen, stumbling as he went. The door slammed behind him as his teammates looked dully in the direction he'd gone.

Once in the kitchen, Nagi looked frantically around at the appliances and cabinets. Schuldich had said the thing was in their blood, right? He reached for one of the drawers and opened it with a violent bang. The utensils inside rattled and Nagi shuffled through them quickly, strewing them throughout the drawer. When he didn't find what he was looking for, he pulled the drawer out of its track and flung it across the room in frustration. He was sure the clatter of silverware and the loud 'bang' the drawer made as it hit the floor would bring Crawford into the kitchen to breathe down his neck, but he didn't care anymore.

Another drawer and another came out without producing what Nagi was looking for. Finally, on the fourth drawer, he found it - a black handled cooking knife with a four-inch long blade. They had made it hard to find because it was one of the only things in the kitchen that could actually cut with any efficiency and they had wanted to keep it away from Farfarello.

Nagi stared at it for a second, frozen. He looked at his hand clutching desperately at the handle and he considered what he was going to do with it. The thought that it was a bad idea never even occurred to him; he knew it was an incredibly bad idea, as well as an incredibly stupid one. But anything he could do would be better than letting that creature hurt her anymore.

Knife in hand, Nagi headed for the kitchen door again, pushing it out of the way at a run. When he reentered the living room, his teammates were still sitting where they had been, staring coldly at him. He ignored them and ran to the stairs, taking them two at a time. When he made it to the top, he turned and bolted toward his room.

Downstairs, Schuldich looked over his glass of wine at Crawford. A red eyebrow rose curiously.

"So I take it that he's not going to try to bed her?" Schuldich asked, smiling perversely. Crawford shrugged and picked his paper up again.

"No, I'm sure he's got something quite different in mind," Crawford said, opening his paper again, "That's alright, though. He'll serve our purpose, one way or another."

Upstairs, Nagi burst into his room, slamming the door against the wall and causing Tot to start. She hadn't left the bed at all since he'd been gone. Instead, she had been writhing around in pain, and had torn most of the sheets off. Now was no exception. Even though her eyes were still not open, she was still whimpering and clutching at fleeting pains. Nagi realized then that she must be trying to fight off the creature.

He came to the side of the bed and looked down at her. Every fiber of his being hoped that she would forgive him for what he was about to do. Slowly, he bent over her head and gave her a small kiss.

"Tot," he said quietly, "Tot, will you still love me if I change a lot?" He realized now why she had asked him that before. It made perfect sense to him now. Tot actually stayed still for a second before she opened her eyes a hair's width. He could see that they had shifted to that disturbing gold color again. The thing was winning.

"No matter what," Tot said weakly, trying to manage a smile at him, "I promise." Nagi smiled back at her sadly.

"Good," he said, almost so quietly that she wouldn't hear. Silently, Nagi raised the knife that he had taken out of the kitchen.

In one smooth motion, he grabbed Tot's wrist and pinned it to the bed. With the next, he brought the sharp blade of the knife against the palm of her hand, slicing it clean open and releasing a small stream of black ichor. He knew there wasn't much time; even as he watched, the wound looked as though it was already closing. As quickly as possible, he brought the palm of his own hand down on the blade of the knife, fighting the urge to scream as the tip protruded from the back of his hand. His blood, too, was black. Schuldich hadn't lied. Nagi pulled the knife out and flung it across the room.

Before Tot's wound was halfway closed, Nagi shoved his own hand on top of hers, forcing their wounds together. Using his telekinesis, he began to pull at the black blood, drawing it into himself.

"Come out, you bastard," he hissed softly, feeling the strange, icy power pulsing into his body, "Come into me instead." He could feel it working. A deadly cold raced through his hand and up his arm, stopping only briefly at his elbow before progressing. Nagi fought the feeling that he was going to pass out and kept pulling. A hard throbbing started to ring in his ears. The cold raced through his shoulder and into his chest. At once, he felt his whole body cool. It occurred to him that this must be what it feels like to be dead. Even through the pain and the cold, though, he could have sworn that he heard Tot scream.

After several seconds, he pulled his hand away with a jerk. Even though it had taken no more than twenty or thirty seconds, it had felt like several days, taxing his body almost to its breaking point. A cold sweat poured down his face as he grabbed his right hand by the wrist and stared at it. As he watched, the wound he'd made began to close on its own. Not ten seconds later, all that was left was a small line of rapidly dissolving, sticky black fluid.

Suddenly, the pounding in his ears became deafening, hammering Nagi to his knees. He thought briefly that his head was going to split, or that the pain in his chest would become a full-fledged heart attack, but neither happened. He clutched his head in agony. The creature was spreading itself throughout his body, growing stronger all the while. Nagi realized that, but there was nothing he could do to stop it. All he could hope to do now was to hold onto his humanity.

At the edges of his consciousness, Nagi could hear whimpering and crying behind him. Tot had awakened. He knew that her wound, unlike his, was still open and would remain so. He wanted to help her, to hold her and tell her everything would be alright, but in his condition he knew that he couldn't dare. He wasn't at all sure what he would do.

"Nagi-kun," he heard Tot say behind him, her voice wavering from the tears and exhaustion, "Nagi-kun... What's wrong?" He could feel her reaching out to touch him. A part of him wished that she would and wanted that comfort. A small, cold voice inside him said 'Let her'. And then he knew that he couldn't.

"Don't touch me," he said softly, his voice wracked with pain, "Go bandage your hand." He didn't look up at her. He couldn't look up at her - not with those eyes. He could feel her withdraw, feel her pain from being rejected. But she did as she was told and rose from the bed, clutching her wounded hand.

"Nagi-kun, do you want a band-aid, too?" Tot asked hopefully.

"No," Nagi replied, his thoughts and body beginning to stabilize again, "Just take care of yourself, okay?" Tot nodded sadly, curls bobbing around her tear-stained face. She left the room, shutting the door behind her with a quiet 'snap'.

In the back of his mind, Nagi could now hear a small voice speaking clearly to him for the first time:

_Hello, Nagi_, it said, _I'm sure we're going to be great friends._

* ~ * ~ * ~ *  
Epilogue  
* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Only a week had gone by, and everything had returned to something resembling normality. The only thing that was really different now was that Crawford had managed to get Nagi and Tot both exempted from their classes under the pretext that they were being 'home schooled'. Crawford had assured the two of them that it was only temporary, at least until he could find a different school for them to attend. There was no way either one of them could go back to the old one, not after Tot's outburst. The fact that Nagi couldn't hide his eerie, cat-like eyes didn't help matters, either.

Both of them rose early everyday anyway, trying to keep some semblance of a routine. They still ate the same breakfast, Nagi still did his work, and Tot still burnt the toast (although once, under Schuldich's tutelage, she had managed to almost get it to come out a golden-brown color).

One morning, Crawford looked up from his coffee and paper at Nagi. The youth was drinking a cup of coffee as well, waiting on his breakfast.

"I've been meaning to ask you," Crawford said, blandly turning a page of his paper, "You took both parts of the Beast into you, didn't you?" Nagi knew that this was not the main question, merely a precursor to what he really wanted to ask.

"Yes, both the parts that Tot and myself possessed," he answered. Even though Nagi was still plainly himself, it was apparent that the creature was lurking just beneath the surface of his normal facade. Crawford picked up his coffee cup and looked at it.

"Then how are you able to retain your self?" Crawford asked, forgoing any further formality, "Why hasn't he completely overridden your mind?" Crawford looked suspiciously at Nagi. This was obviously something that had been bothering him for a few days yet. Nagi could understand why. By all rights, he knew that he should have been deranged, or at the very least, a soulless puppet by now.

"Unlike Tot," Nagi replied, taking his own cup off the table, "I've a much stronger mind. The mental training I've had in order to use my telekinesis has helped me, as well. And... There's something else." Crawford raised an eyebrow, looking over his coffee cup at Nagi.

"Oh?" he asked curiously. Nagi smiled slyly at him.

"I don't have all of him inside me yet," Nagi replied, "There's still one more piece of him out there." Crawford could tell by the way that Nagi spoke that he intended to do something about it.  
Their conversation was interrupted as Tot plunked a plate of typically burnt toast and runny eggs down in front of Nagi. He smiled kindly up at her, knowing that even salmonella poisoning couldn't hurt him now.

"I think I almost got it right this time," she said brightly, "But I'll scrape the burnt off the toast. Hold on a second, let me get a knife." Tot flounced over to the cabinet drawer, pulling the same knife that had cut her hand a week ago out. As a matter of fact, her hand was still bandaged from it. Humming, she took Nagi's toast and began to scrape the blackened parts with the knife. Her hand slipped a bit after a few scrapes, though, and she pricked her finger.

"Ow!" she said, smarting as a few drops of blood began to bead on the tip of her finger. She instinctively raised her hand to her face, wanting to tuck the wounded finger into her mouth. Instead, Nagi caught her hand before it could reach her face.

"I've got it," he said softly, taking the bloodied finger into his own mouth instead. He found that now he quite enjoyed the taste.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Across town, a girl walked down a busy sidewalk alone, pressing her way through the late afternoon foot traffic. Her short, brown hair fell into her face, almost hiding a pair of large, excited, pale violet eyes. She had just come from her high school, as was made apparent by her blue and yellow school uniform and her black school bag. Smiling, she pushed her way through the crowded sidewalk, uttering 'Excuse Me's and 'Sorry's as she went.

A few more blocks, and she finally reached her destination: a small flower shop with a stylized painting of a cat in the window. She made her way past a few outside displays of fresh flowers and bouquets and pushed open the glass door with her shoulder. She knew it was probably not going to happen, but she still hoped every time she came in there that he would be waiting at the counter or watering plants, just like he used to.

The bells above the door tinkled cheerily as the brown haired girl stepped inside, taking in the smell of flowers and water that hung heavily in the air. Behind the counter, a strikingly similar-looking girl stood instead, counting the till in the cash register. As a matter of fact, the only difference between the two was that the one behind the counter had blue eyes and long, dark hair pulled into two braids.

Hearing the bell ring, the girl with the braids looked up from the register, smiling. "Oh, Sakura-chan!" she said cheerfully, "I was wondering when you would show up!" The brown haired girl, Sakura, smiled back happily.

"It took me a while, but I finally made it," Sakura confirmed, "What can I help you with today, Aya-chan?"


End file.
